The State of Retail Financial Services: A Speer & Associates, Inc. 30th Anniversary Special ReportApr 30, 2010
In our 30 years of consulting, no period has seen greater distress and challenges – let alone the…
Payments Systems in LAC: Non-Bank Organizations Entering the ArenaApr 16, 2010
Banks, take notice. Innovative changes in the payments industry, brewing for years, have culminated…
Small Business Banking: Opportunity in Challenging TimesMar 22, 2010
The Small Business segment is a vital part of both the U.S. and Canadian
economies. In the U.S.…
Branch Transformation and Rebirth: Strategies to Serve Customers and Improve EarningsFeb 20, 2010
During this economic downturn, one thing has become clear: there is still a major role for the…
Evolution of Programs for the Unbanked in Latin America: Microlending at the ForefrontOct 17, 2009
Despite considerable progress to expand the reach of financial services to the unbanked segment, a…
The Great Consumer Lending Stall: Restarting the EngineSep 26, 2009
Although consumers, the press and society at large have been critical of banks for pushing too much…
The Promise of CRM: Separating Myth from RealityAug 16, 2009
Many studies have shown over the years that CRM-related projects have not always delivered desired…
Wealth Management: Latin America on the RadarJul 05, 2009
The affluent market has long been the focus of many financial institutions, handled either in a specialized…
Consumer Fees: Keys to Retail Banking Success?Jun 08, 2009
One of the major contributors to bank profitability is revenue derived from consumer fees. Banking…
U.S. Banking: The Natural AristocratMay 08, 2009
No event in American history was so improbable at the time – and has seemed so inevitable in retrospect…
Increasing Branch Sales: Staying Relevant While Bracing for ImpactApr 12, 2009
More than ever, banks are looking for ways to increase revenues. Branches and their sales forces…
ATM Outsourcing: Examining Rational OpportunitiesMar 15, 2009
A number of factors are causing financial institutions to evaluate the benefits of outsourcing all…
Latin America: The Next Payments FrontierFeb 20, 2009
Even as global recessionary pressures take their toll, forces are at work in Latin America to promote…
Reassessing Mortgage Credit Scoring: Calibrating ExpectationsJan 22, 2009
As 2009 begins, there are unending news reports of financial bailouts, never-before-seen corporate…
Bank Service Quality: Being Able to Measure Up to ExpectationsDec 19, 2008
Much has changed since the early emphasis on Service Quality in banking when competition increased…
Commercial Cards in LA: Emerging Trends and OpportunitiesOct 15, 2008
Commercial cards have been gaining in importance over the past few years as financial institutions…
Small Business Banking is Big: High-Octane Approaches in LATAMAug 16, 2008
Small companies operate in every sector of the economy the world over. Long recognized for the…
Turning Wall St. Woes into Main St. OpportunitiesJul 12, 2008
The credit crunch of 2006 and 2007 and the sub-prime crisis have become the banking crisis of 2008.…
Operational Risk: Heeding the Call of Basel IIJun 14, 2008
Financial institution operational risk issues have cycled back into the spotlight with the sub-prime…
Are You Banking On Your Brand?May 31, 2008
Bank branding is an inexact science that has evolved into a complex and often expensive means of identifying…
Online Bill Payment: A Few Clicks Is All It TakesApr 30, 2008
Unlike a number of internet offerings, online bill payment has lived up to the hype as a tool that…
The Outlook for Smart Cards in the US: DOA or Chipping In?Mar 29, 2008
Despite the proliferation of chip cards globally, with 86 countries already completing migration from…
IT Strategic Planning: A Corporate ImperativeFeb 18, 2008
More than ever, robust IT planning is essential for aligning business line strategies and technology…
Banking on Baby Boomers: Boom or GloomJan 18, 2008
Much has been written about the Baby Boomer generation and its impact on social and economic issues…
Surfing the Remittance WaveDec 18, 2007
The Hispanic migration to the United States has been one of the most significant population movements…
The Lure of Mobile PaymentsDec 06, 2007
In a few short years, the rapidly-evolving mobile payments industry has exploded. Attractive…
Market Segmentation: A Fundamental Key to Building RelationshipsOct 14, 2007
Developing and promoting profitable products has been a hurdle for banks to overcome on a consistent…
Branch Automation: Reflections and a Look Toward the FutureSep 03, 2007
Conventional wisdom suggested for years that bankers could replace some of their branches with ATMs…
Shared EFT Networks: Progress or Positioning?Aug 15, 2007
In late 2005, Speer & Associates, Inc. (S&A) examined the shared EFT network business in the…
The Reality of Free CheckingJul 22, 2007
The U.S. banking industry, for the most part, is a product of imitation and homogenization. One bank…
Revolutionizing Retail Banking in Latin AmericaJul 01, 2007
The retail banking revolution continues in Latin America. In the relentless drive for differentiation…
Latin America: Searching for El DoradoJul 01, 2007
For two centuries European explorers searched the Americas for the famed city of gold – El Dorado.…
Customer Contact Centers: Optimizing the Customer ExperienceMay 18, 2007
Over the past decade, few departments within a financial institution have grown as quickly and become…
Integrating Retail Delivery Channels: Tearing Down the SilosApr 01, 2007
For the past 20 years, the delivery channel infrastructure in financial institutions has been undergoing…
Rejoin the Battle: Credit Card IssuingMar 16, 2007
During the last 20 years, the payments industry has come full circle. For a variety of reasons, most…
The Challenges of Managing Global Merchant PaymentsJan 26, 2007
The global consumer payments industry continues to experience tremendous growth and unprecedented…
Signature vs. PIN: The Ongoing BattleDec 02, 2006
The global consumer payments industry continues to experience tremendous growth and unprecedented…
Branch Sales: Can Results Meet ExpectationsSep 29, 2006
After decades of attempts to de-emphasize the branch, its resurgence as the key delivery channel for…
Is the Time Right for a New Core System?Aug 28, 2006
A few short years ago, thousands of bankers were in the midst of systems changes to ready their institutions…
Consumer Lending in Latin America: Is the Sky the Limit?Jul 15, 2006
In spite of significant growth in consumer credit in Latin America, facilitated by growing economies…
To Image or Not to Image: That is the QuestionMay 01, 2006
Some banks optimistically assumed that their Check 21 projects could be completed within a year or…
Moving and Shaking: Never a Dull Moment in the Consumer Card Payments BusinessMar 01, 2006
The last 20 years have seen the payments industry come full circle, from a mass exodus of banks in…
Outsourcing: Continued Strong Growth in the Banking SectorMar 01, 2006
Outsourcing remains a difficult and often emotional decision to make for many companies. Beyond internal…
Commercial Cards: Riding the Next WaveJan 12, 2006
Several forces are at work to make commercial cards an attractive business for financial institutions.…